It is often desirable to identify a group of individuals or other resources for communication and/or collaboration session characteristics, where collaboration involves the direction of the efforts and capabilities of a group towards a common goal. Communication between collaborating group members is essential to the prompt achievement of the goal as it can ensure individual resources are appropriately directed and minimize duplication of efforts.
U.S. patent Ser. No. 11/303,989, entitled “Method and System for Enhancing Collaboration, filed Dec. 19, 2005 by Raymond Wallace, et al. and incorporated herein by reference describes a system for identifying collaborators that are needed to respond to a triggering event and inviting the collaborators to participate in a collaboration associated with the triggering event. The collaborators are identified using existing data regarding available resources. Collaborators are given the option of participating in the effort, and appropriate communication links are established between members of the collaboration group.
Although the above method is useful for identifying a group for collaboration session characteristics, the membership of the collaborating group is defined based on static data structures and decisions that are made at the point in time that the collaboration is established. However, as the collaborative group perseveres toward the goal, events may occur that make it desirable to vary resource participation; e.g. to create a new related or disjoint group. It would be desirable to identify a method and system for dynamically controlling group membership for collaborative and other communication purposes.